This invention generally relates to shock absorbers and more particularly relates to liquid spring shock absorbers which can accomplish variations in shock mitigation through fluid amplification yielding vastly improved absorption ranges for high speed vehicle shock absorption.
A number of conventional shock absorbers which employ metering pins, metering holes, metering grooves or pressure responsive valves for shock mitigation are known in the art. Besides being expensive such shock absorbers are typically unable to operate at high efficiency during abnormal operating conditions. It has been observed, for example, than even advanced shock absorber designs often function erratically in suspension systems that are subjected to vehicle speeds in excess of 170 miles per hour.
In liquid spring shock absorbers, such erratic performance characteristics occur as a result of turbulent fluid flow conditions within the shock absorber. To obviate this problem and at the same time provide a liquid spring shock absorber capable of producing highly efficient shock curves without the necessity for metering pins, metering grooves and the like, it is desirable to provide a shock absorber which can operate efficiently at both subsonic and supersonic internal fluid flow conditions.